Current Methods In Ticks, Mosquitoes, And Their Transmitted Pathogens

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Xin-Ru Wang

University of Minnesota, Department of Entomology

Dr. Xin-Ru Wang has been in training as a postdoctoral research associate for tick and tick-borne pathogens research since 2018 at the Department of Entomology, University of Minnesota. She focuses on Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum ticks and the rickettsial transmit. Her current research centers on tick immune systems, including cell signaling pathways and programmed cell death pathways, monitoring the underlying molecular events associated with rickettsial survival within the different vectors. Her studies investigate the mechanisms used by rickettsiae to survive, persist and be transmitted, and aim to 1) explore the routes of tick-borne pathogens transmission and 2) discover new vaccine and therapeutic drug candidates for prevention and control of tick-borne disease outbreaks. Dr. Wang completed her graduate studies and received her PhD at Zhejiang University in 2016. She received postdoc training in the institute of insect science at Zhejiang University from 2016-2018. She continued her studies on insect vectors and their transmitted plant viruses as her dissertation research.

Benjamin Cull

University of Minnesota, Department of Entomology

Dr Benjamin Cull is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota, USA. His current research focuses on the interactions between tick-borne intracellular bacteria (Rickettsia spp. and Anaplasma phagocytophilum), their hosts, and their tick vectors. His PhD was completed at the University of Glasgow, UK, wherein he examined the role of the autophagy pathway in adapting the protozoan parasite Leishmania major to the different environments encountered in its sand fly vector and the mammalian host. Subsequently, he spent six years as an emerging infections scientist at Public Health England, UK, carrying out surveillance, ecological research, and risk assessment for vectors and their associated pathogens across the UK and Europe. His research interests include vector biology, vector ecology, vector surveillance, enzootic cycles of vector-borne disease, and host-pathogen-vector interactions, with a focus on ticks and tick-borne diseases.

Collection Overview

Vector-borne diseases, caused by either parasites, bacteria, or viruses, are responsible for significant increases in public health and economic burdens worldwide. Biting arthropods account for more than 60% of vectors among the top ten tropical diseases. As obligate blood-feeding arthropods, both mosquitoes and ticks occupy a vital position in the transmission of vector-borne diseases.

This Methods Collection seeks to introduce a broad range of essential and complementary approaches centered on mosquitoes and ticks and the pathogens they transmit. We invite studies on the fundamental aspects of mosquitoes and ticks (physiology, biology, genomics, evolution, etc.) and the pathogens borne and transmitted by them (infection and persistence in vectors and vertebrate hosts, transmission types, interactions among vectors, pathogens, and vertebrate hosts). These will provide a more comprehensive understanding of this topic and can facilitate the design of innovative solutions to control vector-borne disease spread.